A point frozen in time
by TheSODU
Summary: Voldemort never killed Lily and James Potter. A spell freezes them in time. Voldemort’s killing curse still rebounds off Harry. Peter escapes. Sirius goes to Azkaban. And Remus has the worst week of his life. But can one discrepancy change history?
1. The night life fell apart

Summary: Voldemort never killed Lily and James Potter. A spell freezes them in time. Voldemort's killing curse still rebounds off Harry. Peter Pettrigrew still escapes. Sirius Black still goes to Azkaban. And Remus Lupin still has the worst week of his life. But how can one small discrepancy change history? And what happens when 21-year-old James and Lily wake up 10 years later?

Pairings: Lily/James possible Sirius/Remus. The two main characters are listed as Harry and Remus but not in a romantic way.

Disclaimer: Not mine. JKR's.

Author's Note: This is probably going to be a long story. It might take me a while to get it done, but I'll try to stick with it. Reviews always help. ^_^

***

**CHAPTER 1: The night life fell apart**

James Potter was not pleased.

"Hold still Harry. Harry, come on, hold still for Daddy. Good boy, good…Oh, oh God! Lily! Lily, he did it again. Stop stop!"

The sound of dishes in the kitchen paused, followed by footsteps climbing the stairs and finally a willowy redhead made her way into the nursery.

"James."

"Uhhh, but he did it again Lily!"

Harry giggled.

"He's a baby, James. You're changing a diaper. It happens."

James had enough sense to look somewhat abashed, scratching the back of the head before getting back to magicking the pee out of his robes.

Lily could hear him grumbling:

"James Potter, auror in training. Scourge of death eaters. This is so not dignified."

His wife raised an eyebrow and walked over to the changing table. She finished fastening the diaper and leaned down to brush noses with little Harry. With a chilly smile, in that cutesy voice reserved expressly for babies, Lily cooed.

"Now, now Harry, no peeing on Daddy or I'll never be able to convince him to do diapers again. And Mommy would be very very not happy if he tried to pull that one again. OK, sweetie?"

Her eyes narrowed.

Baby Harry's eyes widened and he turned to James. The marauder returned the child's silent plea with a wince and shrug of his shoulders.

"OK, Daddy and Harry will behave," James said with a nervous laugh. "Right Harry? Um, Daddy's going to go do the rest of the dishes now. Because he's an awesome husband like that."

James flashed a smile then darted out the door. Harry started after him, clearly wondering how his Dada could abandon him like this.

"Oh, don't look like that," Lily picked Harry up and settled him in her lap on a rocking chair. "That was just a little show for your father's sake. Mommy is not crazy. Don't you listen to a word your Uncle Sirius says."

"Pa'foo!" baby Harry clapped his hands "Pa'foo. Mooey. Pa'foo. Mooey!"

"Hush, hush, don't let your father hear that. But what about your other uncle?"

Harry frowned.

"Wwww. Waaammmmmaa. Waaamm…Pe'er"

Here Harry gave up and started pouting.

Poor Peter, Lily thought. Wormtail and Peter just weren't very baby-friendly names. Sirius, of course, had thought it was hysterical and had made it his life's mission to teach Harry how to say Wormtail.

_Two months ago, before they went into hiding, Sirius had come running into the kitchen where James and Peter were sitting. His eyes gleamed and chest puffed out. He held Harry forward._

_Sirius bellowed with pride: "Say it Harry. Say it for Uncle Padfoot."_

"_Wamf-ee."_

"_See! Oh my God, did you hear? Good Harry! Good Harry!"_

"_Goo Hawwy," the baby echoed back, bouncing excitedly in his godfather's arms._

"_What exactly did he say?" Peter asked nervously, knowing it was the wrong thing to say as soon as he finished the sentence._

"_Your name you twit! 'Wormy!' Didn't you hear it? Pristine! Clear as crystal! Don't worry, Harry. Everyone else heard it even if that ungrateful rat didn't!" _

_Sirius had clearly gone into melodramatic mode. They were so doomed. But James, always the daring one, just couldn't let it be._

"_You know," James said. "It's funny, but I distinctly thought I heard him say Wamf-ee."_

_Sirius glared, and brought the baby to his chest, gently rocking the child and sighing as he trudged out of the room._

"_Ingrates, Harry. Complete ingrates," he muttered._

Lily smiled to herself at the memory. She had watched it unfold from the other doorway. It seemed odd how happy they could be even with the world getting more dangerous every day. Lily knew hiding had been making James stir crazy, and it was getting to her a bit too. Their friends were off fighting the legions of the Dark Lord, and here they were joking about diapers. When they received letters from friends, it was all bad news.

There'd been a letter from Remus a few weeks ago. _She'd been reading to Harry when all of a sudden Lily heard a horrible yell and the sound of something being thrown against a wall. She'd rushed downstairs and there was James shaking somewhere between rage and tears with a burning piece of parchment in his hands._

"_James?"_

"_He sent a letter, The bloody git. Sent a, a letter. How dare he!"_

"_Who?" Lily asked, staring at what must have been the letter, which was now on fire and being tossed into the fireplace._

"_Him. Lupin."_

James had refused to say Remus or Moony since the Order meeting three months ago.

Remus seldom showed up to the meetings anymore. He said it was hard to get away from the werewolf pack he was monitoring. But his behavior had gotten shadier and shadier. Kingsly had bumped into him while on auror duty in Knockturn Alley, and on the rare occasions when Remus provided them with a scrap of intelligence information it was often wrong. They'd wind up 20 miles away from a raid -- a raid they'd suspected of happing right where it did happen until Remus passed on false information.

Lily still was hesitant.

But the Order had a spy and it looked more like Remus was it every day.

Before the meeting three months ago, Sirius had been talking about Remus' behavior non-stop. His mood swung wildly from defensive to frustrated to hurt until finally, more and more, it settled on angry. He was clearly convinced Remus was under some spell or had actually turned on them. The Black was ready to sit on the werewolf until he came to his senses. He'd joke about it like that, but it was clear it was a dark topic, even for the ever-lighthearted Sirius.

James would have none of it. Leading up to the meeting he and Sirius were getting into shouting matches at work on a daily basis, each more violent as Sirius grew more concerned and somber.

During one particularly bad row, Sirius' dramatic slamming of his fist knocked some sort of opera glasses off a desk. Apparently, they were a priceless security device and it was Mad-Eye Moody's desk.

The senior auror had threatened to submit them both to the Department of Mysteries as test subjects if it ever happened again.

That had quieted them down, but they both were stewing, ready to prove each other wrong at the next Order meeting where Remus showed up.

_The night of the falling out, Remus had arrived late. He quietly sat at the table, ignoring Sirius' glares, just wearily staring at candle in the center of the table._

_When Dumbledore asked if he had anything to report, Remus didn't seem to respond._

_Just when James was about to kick him under the table because he thought Remus hadn't heard ("Poor bloke must be knackered, eh?"), the werewolf spoke up._

"_No, nothing."_

"_Nothing, Remus?" Dumbledore asked._

"_Sorry."_

_Everyone waited for some sort of elaboration, but Sirius chose that moment to explode._

"_He's been kissing Voldermort's arse is what he's been doing!"_

"_Black!" Minerva was scolding as Peter and Benjy Fenwick tried to push him back into his seat._

"_Oh, don't hush me you lot! How can you let him just keep coming and listening to our meetings and leaving and telling Merlin knows who?" Back was panting now._

"_Shove it, Black. Moony has a perfectly good explanation, which I'm sure he's about to share. You sound as prejudiced as your parents. Remmy couldn't hurt a fly."_

_Remus slid his chair back from the table and stood up, looking like he was trying to come up with something to say. He seemed to be struggling, opening and shutting his mouth._

"_I saw him at…he was…"_

_It wasn't Remus who had spoken. The stutter had come from Peter._

"_He was…Remus was in London on the full moon last week."_

_There was silence for a minute._

"_Riiiight Peter. I think we've been over the whole business about how it doesn't matter until it's dark out," James was the first to break the stillness._

_Remus slowly sat back in his chair, dropping the last few inches like a lead weight._

"_No, James, it was right before sundown. And, he, there w-w-were children. It was right by that big playground over by the circle, where we took Harry that one time. The muggle news said a boy was murdered…in a funny way, they wouldn't s-s-say how, but in that park that night. I didn't want to say anything, Moony's our friend, but…"_

_Again silence. Remus looked mortified._

_This time Dumbledore spoke up, slowly and deliberately._

"_Remus, do you have a reason for this?"_

"_Yes."_

"_And that would be?"_

"_I can't say."_

"_Oh, you bloody, bloody, bloody oh I don't even know what to call you. That's all you say now! Hanging out with moldy Voldie? 'Can't say.' Bite any children lately? 'Can't say.' Have a nose on your face? 'Can't say,'" Sirius was seething, butting in every time Remus paused._

"_I'm sorry, I really can't, you know, the pack…"_

"_Damn the werewolves. We're your pack."_

"_Please, I know I shouldn't have been in London..."_

"_He admits it!"_

"…_but you'll just have to understand and…"_

"_Fat chance!"_

_Here Remus seemed to struggle to speak again._

"_I just can't say!"_

"_Useless. Completely useless. What bloody good is a spy who never tells us anything?"_

"_Sirius," Dumbledore began to interrupt._

"_WE TRUSTED YOU!" That was not Sirius. All eyes in the room turned to James Potter, who appeared to be squeezing the life out of the parchment he'd been taking notes on. His eyes were ablaze beneath his mess of dark hair._

"_Well, maybe you shouldn't have," Remus whispered._

_James lunged across the table, and all hell broke loose with the exception of Sirius Black who was standing frozen staring at Remus._

_It took a few long seconds for things to calm down (via Lily side tackling James, but not before he managed to punch Remus in the jaw)._

_The Order's resident werewolf looked at James, searching for something. The slight frown he walked in with tonight never leaving Remus' face._

"_I'd better get back to the pack. I'll let you know if I hear anything."_

_Dumbledore followed him out the door. There was quiet whispering in the hall and then the slamming of the front door._

_Dumbledore came back in and called it a night, offering some Sugar Newts to cheer them up before parting ways._

_James was in a chair, glaring at the wall. Peter was in a corner in tears. Lily stood behind James debating whether to slap him or not. And Sirius, Sirius was still staring at Remus' chair._

"_I kinda thought…I can't believe Moony actually said that," Sirius finally spoke and turned his attention to the remaining marauders. "You don't think Remus would actually do that, do you Pete? There must have been other werewolves with him right? He wouldn't, Moony couldn't…"_

_Sirius suddenly turned and walked into the next room. An "oomf" informed them he'd settled on the couch by the fireplace._

Lily had been shocked. The mighty Black, despite all the talk, appeared to be heartbroken that Remus had basically confirmed that he was the spy. Everything always seemed to be a game to the invincible pure blood, but this time he'd been more right than he'd meant to be. He'd suspected an Imperius curse or maybe Remus was dabbling in the dark a little too much in his efforts to extract information. But Remus J. Lupin did not murder children.

And James, who had placed so much faith in Remus, seemed to feel even more betrayed than Sirius.

Three months later Lily still didn't know what she thought.

Apparently Remus' letter – the one James set on fire – had just said something to the effect of "Hope you're safe. I hear Harry nearly took his first steps the other day and now has enough messy hair to rival his father. I'm so scraped up after the last moon that I look like one of the mummies from that muggle museum Lily likes. Looks bad out here, but getting by. Cheers, Remus."

Even if not for the great falling out, Lily couldn't figure out what Remus had been thinking. Who sent a letter like that during a war?

And when the Death Eaters attacked and killed 27 muggles at The British Museum a few days later, Lily couldn't shrug the feeling that it wasn't a coincidence. Had Remus known? Was he taunting them? It was so unlike Remus. She had hidden the news article from James, trying to convince herself that there really was nothing to it.

Lily caught herself sighing again. She'd been doing that a lot lately.

Watching the marauders break apart was a painful thing. They'd been a fixture in her life for a decade now, even if occasionally a somewhat annoying fixture. (How on earth had Sirius Black gotten in their wedding limo, so that he could pop out the second the post-nuptial fun started in the back seat?) But this was Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs and seeing them a mess reminded her that everything else was a mess. Dead friends on the front page of the Prophet every day and stories of terror in the muggle world from her sister.

Lily let out another long sigh.

Harry was quietly playing with the hem of her shirt and James apparently had given up on dishes because the kitchen was silent.

And in that silence she heard the front door open.

She listened as James walked towards the front door. "Peter? Peter?"

And then a gasping yell: "Run Lily. Take Harry. They've found us."

Lily didn't need to ask who "they" were. She snatched her wand, held Harry in one arm and apparated…tried to apparate. Something was blocking it. The attempt left her feeling woozy.

She faintly heard shouting downstairs and then there was a flash of blue light from the staircase.

Making for the window, Lily jumped back as a curse from the outside shattered the glass.

Lily was a smart witch, but she was running circles trying to think of a way to save her Harry.

Footsteps up the stairs. Almost a slither.

Suddenly she was remembering a passage from her fourth-year history of magic class. The words just popped into her head unbidden as if on instinct.

"_The strongest and most difficult protective magic is blood magic. It was perfected and written about a great deal in the early 1100s, but little is still known about it. We do know that the magic is said to require great natural talent, strength of will, a powerful bond, blood relation and wandless magic."_

There had to be a way, but she was out of time. A cruel laugh was coming from the doorway.

Lily looked into those green eyes so like her own and whispered "I love you."

In a flash she turned and pointed her wand at Voldemort. But her lips had barely opened when a blue flash from Voldemort's wand froze the witch where she stood.

"C-c-can't we just take the baby with us like the parents, M-m-my Lord?" Pettigrew stammered from the shadows.

"The parents can tell me things a useless rat like you would never be privy to. Their deaths will be slow and hopefully will give us new information on Dumbledore and the ministry. But the boy needs to die."

"B-b-but surely master, a boy…"

"He dies."

And with a flick of the Dark Lord's wand, a green burst of a light and a scream, Voldemort was gone. "Master?" Pettrigrew looked left and right, then staggered to the crib, making sure to stay far away from the lightly glowing and frozen form of Lily. She stood, wand raised as though frozen in time itself but clearly not dead.

Harry Potter was bawling. His pudgy little finger rubbed at a trickle of blood on an odd, lightning-bolt-shaped scar. Pettigrew ran, passing another frozen figure on the first floor on his way out the door.

***

The next morning, Sirius Black was sent to Azkaban without trial for betraying the Potters, killing a crowd of muggles and murdering Peter Pettigrew. A rat missing a toe ran from the scene.

The Potters were transferred to the Ministry of Magic where work began on efforts to restore the couple.

And Remus Lupin rested naked, bloody and cold in a field of long grass, staring at the predawn sky and hoping that the world would forget about him if he just didn't sit up.

"Oi, Lupin! Lupin where are you?"

Remus sat up.

"Over here Seamus."

"What are you doing so far from the town? Greyback is going to beat the snot out of you again. This is the second moon in a row you've turned up nowhere near the attack point."

"My Wolf appears to have chased the town mayor out here for sport," Remus said, poking the nearby corpse with his toe.

He hoped the blood he'd smeared around his mouth earlier that morning looked convincing. Honestly, he had no idea who had killed the mayor, but he'd been testing a new potion Snape had been experimentally brewing to suppress the Wolf. It was painful and imperfect, but it let him keep his mind well enough to defend a few people and then play along after the moon.

The potion let him regain his senses faster than the other wolves after transforming back into human form. He usually used this time to set himself up to look like he'd made a particularly impressive kill.

This time, though, and last time, it had been too much. He couldn't take much more of this, especially after things went so horribly wrong at that London playground. Each day after the moon, he awoke to villages full of shredded bodies. The pack was getting frenzied with the excitement of war and the number of wolves had been growing larger.

So, when Remus awoke this time to find a limp little girl with her dress dyed red a few feet from him, he grabbed the mayor and apparated to a nearby field to catch his breath and throw up a little.

Seamus was a tall, harry man and the sort of werewolf who Remus suspected would be a nasty person even without his condition. He'd missed out on his share of brains, but Greyback liked his brutish attitude. Luckily, even though Remus was Greyback's first and favorite bitten "son," he wasn't expected to like Seamus.

After all, a werewolf who was also a wand user was a mysterious and revered thing. He was expected to have higher standards, even if they all resented him for it a little.

So, Seamus just laughed when Remus turned away from him and began walking toward the rendezvous point.

"You look like crap. Particularly rough night eh?" Seamus called out after him.

This would be the start of the worst week of Remus J. Lupin's life.

***

Preview for next chapter:

--APPROXIMATELY 11 YEARS LATER--

Kingsley smiled back at the Potters and Black, still marveling that they were here. It was a lovely, sunny day, and they'd come to see the one man who would know where Dumbledore might be at the moment. And they needed Dumbledore to sort out the whole business of two newly unfrozen, 21-year-old Potters and one newly proved innocent, 32-year-old Black.

So here they were on the brick path leading up to a cozy little cottage in a row of equally quaint houses.

Kingsley turned back to the door as he heard the sound of footsteps. A second later there was the jingle of locks being magicked open.

"Sorry, Kingsley, give me just a second," a muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

The auror froze. Oh, no.

Black raised and eyebrow at Kingsley's sudden horror.

"Sorry, sorry, I heard you calling, and I'm trying to get it open, but dad's just got too many darn locks on the door. Paranoid much?"

Oh no, no, no, no, no. The Potters had been unfrozen for less than 5 hours. Kingsley had found out 3 hours ago, and in his rush to find Dumbledore he had put them all into the most awkward situation possible. _Of course_, it was summer holidays, that was the whole reason why Dumbledore was away and why the werewolf should be here at home instead of Hogwarts.

Click. And the door opened.

"There we go. Dad's actually not home right now, but you can step in…Oh, wow, is that…are they…uh, Kingsley?"

The door had opened to reveal an 11 year-old boy with messy black hair and startling green eyes.

Kingsley finally found his tongue.

"Oh shit."

***

AN: Phew. Done with the first chapter. Please read and review. Some plot holes are deliberate and come into play later, but let me know if anything is confusing and I'll fix it.


	2. Project Unfreeze the Potters

A/N: OK, so, the main characters in this are Remus and Harry in a father/son sort of way. There's also plenty of Sirius, James and Lily. But the first two chapters are sort of setting the scene. There will be all sorts of Remmy goodness past, present and future once we get all this out of the way. So, hang in there and hopefully it will be worth your patience! The original characters are necessary for getting the plot where it's going and for keeping you wondering exactly what is going on. (They're side characters, not Mary Sues.) Enjoy.

**CHAPTER 2: Project Unfreeze the Potters**

11 YEARS AFTER VOLDEMORT'S FAILED KILLING CURSE

Jane Weston looked over her scrolls for the millionth time. She was completely focused, zoning out the chaos around her. They had everything right, didn't they? Should that candle really be another foot to the left? Did the color matter? Could it be more ...

"Weston."

Jane jumped a bit in her seat and looked up to see Craig Simon leaning over the top of the divider that wasn't quiet tall enough for her to call a cubicle. Behind Craig she could see wizards and witches running back and forth carrying stacks of scrolls and ingredients for potions.

"It's the big day, sport. You ought to get ready," Craig smiled, walking around into her workspace and putting a hand on her shoulder. Craig was her boss, head researcher for the Ministry of Magic's main library. He reminded her of a jolly, overenthusiastic Quidditch coach she'd had as a child.

"I _am_ getting ready," Jane said, waving the scrolls in her hand.

"Oh, not that again. Weston, you've checked the formulas a billion times. Just accept that you're a genius and you've got it figured out. What I meant was that you should get up and find a good spot to watch the show," Craig smiled and threw her a thumbs up.

"It's not a show! We could, we could… we could blow the parents of the Boy Who Lived to smithereens, or they could get sucked into a worm hole, or we might only unfreeze half of them or, or.."

"Weston. Please. Every witch and wizard in the ministry with half a brain has consulted on this, including me. And you've got it right. Now I expect to see you over by the storage garage in 5 minutes. And if you're late, it better be because you finally decided to eat something, not because you're still glued to these scrolls," Craig shook his head and left for the garage.

Deep breaths. This was the day. This was the day when they'd test her theory for unfreezing Lily and James Potter. This project had been all Jane worked on for the last 9 months. As for frozen Potters, well, that had been part of life for 11 years. They even had an acronym, PUFP: Project Unfreeze the Potters.

******************

_11 YEARS AGO_

_After trying every counter curse in the book, the Ministry of Magic wasn't quite sure what to do with the Potters._

_The ministry wizards working on the project seemed to be getting a little bit desperate after two months with no results, and that desperation was causing problems. Just the other day, Bradley McKinney had nearly burned down the ministry offices, and the wizards in the Department of Mysteries had been covered in orange spots for three days after Jamie Strayer's latest experimental treatment._

_The minister had promised that the Potters would be back on the move in no time, and the entire ministry was feeling the pressure as they ran out of options. It was getting kind of embarrassing._

_And then there was the awful incident with that Dursley man. _

_At first the Potters had been taken to St. Mungo's. Harry sat in a crib in the hospital room watching the doctors and nurses circling the beds where his stiff-limbed parents had been set. He blew raspberries, trying to get a little attention. Then he tried crying, and then he settled for pouting. He wanted his mom and his dad and his uncles He didn't like this place at all._

_Finally, the head nurse noticed the child was being neglected, scolding the younger nurses. They were clearly nervous about this boy who had defeated Voldemort. Maybe they were afraid of a child that powerful, maybe they didn't think they were worthy to care for him or maybe they just didn't want to be the nurse who made the Boy Who Lived cry._

"_Hells bells, you, you and you are officially on baby watch. Get your butts out of here and find that child some milk."_

_They eventually realized the situation was going to be more permanent than they had hoped. It was decided that the Potters should be transferred to the Department of Mysteries and Harry would go live with his aunt, upon Dumbledore's insistence that he live with a blood relative._

_Petunia Dursley quietly shuffled into St. Mungo's lobby with Vernon grumbling as he trudged along behind her._

_His gaze swept around the room, from the girl burping a rainbow of soap bubbles to the old man who seemed to be bent into a pretzel._

"_Oh, heck no. We're not bringing one of these freaks home with us," Vernon spat._

_The med-witch behind the counter smiled understandingly, "It always is a madhouse on Saturdays. But I'm sure the Boy Who Lived won't be any trouble at all. Please follow Anita up to Ward 6."_

_Vernon rolled his eyes and waddled after Anita, trying to avoid a rapidly spreading puddle of fizzing yellow goo on the floor._

"_It will be fine Vernon. It will be fine, right? Oh, this is so like Lily to do something like this to me," Petunia fretted._

"_Don't worry there won't be any magic in my house," he bellowed._

_Anita frowned. Surely, these weren't the people taking home the Boy Who Lived? Hadn't someone said they had their own little boy? They had parenting skills, didn't they?_

_They were out of breath by the time they reached Ward 6, since Vernon wanted to take the stairs instead of riding the levitation rail up. ("Over my dead body! Can't be safe. There aren't any supports.")_

_By the time they arrived at the right door. Anita was considering ways to save Harry from this horrid couple, but her thoughts were cut short when Dumbledore and Millicent Bagnold, minister of magic, stepped into the hall. (A/N: I'm pretty sure Millicent Bagnold was the minister during this time period.)_

"_Ah, Petunia, Vernon, lovely to see you," Dumbledore reached out to shake their hands, but neither moved to return the gesture._

"_Where's the brat and those two morons?" Vernon scowled._

"_Vernon, please. Don't be like that. Were are they?" Petunia spoke up in a mousy whisper, trying to peer into the room._

"_Ah, yes, well, we can get to the paperwork in a moment. Of course, you'd want to see them safe first. It might be a bit of a shock, but they seem to be quite all right," Bagnold rambled stepping aside._

_They all filed inside and stopped. There was Lily, terror frozen in her eyes. A doctor was leaning over her chanting in Latin with a purple glow seeping from his wand and swirling about the room like a storm cloud._

_He paused and looked up when he noticed the new presence, "Oh, why hullo! We're giving the flexiderm spell a try this round."_

_Petunia screeched and fainted. Vernon made no move to catch her as he just stood spluttering._

"_Brilliant work, Glen. As you can see we're sparing no expense for your…Is your wife quite all right?" Bagnold looked at the prone woman on the floor. "Ah, well, an understandable shock. Seeing a loved one like that. Maybe we should do the paperwork first, after all?"_

_And that is when Vernon Dursley socked the Minister of Magic right in the face._

_Dumbledore tried to reason with the man, but Vernon told them in no uncertain terms that he'd be packing Harry in a box and shipping him to China if they ever tried to send the little freak to his quiet suburban home. _

_The couple had stormed out of the hospital, aurors subtly following for protection. Harry had to be with blood family and so Dumbledore would just have to wait until they calmed down to try again._

_But those hopes would be destroyed when the Daily Prophet turned up the next day. _

_It turned out it wasn't just aurors following the Dursleys home. Death Eaters had been waiting at the hospital ready for a bit of revenge against the family that ended their reign. It was never clear who in the ministry tipped off Voldemort's followers. But the muggle news was reporting a freak tornado that has tidily decimated an entire suburban subdivision, several people wearing funny robes and "auror" badges were reported among the dead._

_Dumbledore wished he'd had the foresight to take Harry straight to the Dursleys the night of Voldemort's defeat. Of course, there had been no way to know the Potters would be so difficult to unfreeze, but there was this nagging feeling in the back of his mind. The Dursleys would be alive and Harry would be safely with them if he'd spirited the boy away before the ministry got involved. The Death Eaters would have never found them and the blood magic would have been in place for protection._

_Now what to do with the boy?_

_*******************_

But Harry Potter was a whole different matter, Jane sighed. Today was about unfreezing Lily and James Potter.

Years after everyone had given up and the Potters had been tagged and shelved in the storage garage, Jane had had an epiphany.

Her muggle husband once again had been packing lunches in those ridiculous muggle "zipper-lock bags" or whatever they were called. Granted, the financial firm where he worked didn't have house elves, but the idea that sandwiches would stay fresher if you wrapped them in some non-magical film made out of petroleum products seemed ludicrous. They were having another argument about it when her husband had said something brilliant.

"Think of it as a magic bag that keeps all the germs and stuff out so that the sandwich doesn't age. The sandwich has its own little comfy world completely separate from our own," he'd explained, rubbing his temple as he realized how stupid that sounded.

But his wife wasn't glaring anymore. Her eyes had gone wide, mouth slightly open. Then she rushed for the fireplace, snatching a handful of floo powder.

"Uh, darling?" he asked.

"Sandwiches! The Potters are sandwiches in zipper-lock-thing bags!"

So, it had turned out to be a bit more complicated, but it was all the inspiration the young ministry librarian needed.

What she meant was that the Potters did not age or move because they were in a world completely separate, although visible, from this one. The spells didn't work because Lily and James weren't frozen. They weren't even there, well, not really.

Voldemort had created "pocket dimensions," where time moved so much slower that not even a second had passed. He was essentially saving them in a Ziploc bag so he could torture them for information later.

It was an advanced and dangerous type of magic, but it was the sort of thing that during Merlin's era had kept the Isle of Avalon hidden in mist, traveling through time at its own pace.

Nine months ago it was a theory, but now they were almost positive. The ministry had scoured every book on the subject, and today they'd test their plans to bring the Potters back into this dimension.

Jane glanced at her clock, which read "almost late," and decided it was time to head over to storage. She grabbed a scone from a box of pastries that a coworker had brought in for the big day. She wasn't particularly hungry, but it ought to appease Craig.

The normally dark, dank storage garage was aglow with candles and abuzz with a crowd of excited wizards. The arrays had been drawn out, a cauldron was bubbling and the Potters had been levitated to the center of the room.

"OK folks, today's the day. We're going to start in a second. Oh, hey Jane! There's the lady who made this all happen," a tall wizard from the Division for Time-Space Regulation was giving a little speech at the front of the crowd. Jane gave a little wave. She saw Craig and some colleagues waving off to the side and made her way over to them.

"Anyway, umm, where was I?" the wizard continued. "Ah, yes, the big day for PUFP, so we're going to begin. Everybody please stand back behind the markers. OK, Scott, let's get this thing rolling."

A single drop of the shimmering silver potion was levitated from the cauldron into the center of the array, where it then dropped. The liquid landed directly on the wick of a candle, snuffing it out with a little woosh and a puff of blue smoke. The air seemed to pause and a violent shockwave burst outward. It smelled oddly like lemons.

Jane stared at the two bodies. She had positioned herself so that she could see right into Lily's eyes. It was as though the air around them was bending and shifting in a way she should couldn't describe, couldn't comprehend. She leaned into the sensation until her eyes began to hurt and she had to look away.

Suddenly the pressure from the shockwave rolled back with a rattle and the room was silent for a moment.

"Expelliarmus!"

And suddenly Jane found herself thrown back, her head hitting something hard. Jane blinked, and all hell broke loose.

******

Lily blinked. She had just gone to disarm Voldemort, but instead she watched a witch she'd never seen before go flying back into a shelf. She glanced behind herself, no Harry.

"Lily? Lily? What's going on? Where's Harry? How'd we get here? Is this…" James trailed off, recognizing the ministry storage shed. He and Sirius had gotten into trouble on more than one occasion for "borrowing" interesting looking artifacts off the shelves.

It was a familiar place, but James' heart was still beating like mad. He hadn't apparated, and why on earth would Voldemort banish them to a storage shed full of…cheering wizards?

"Well, I'll be. It worked. We probably should have noticed Ms. Potter was mid-incantation, but I'm sure Weston will be fine. Huh."

A tall wizard was staring at the two with a look somewhere between pride and scientific curiosity.

What on earth was going on? James felt like he might hyperventilate, especially when he saw his wife frantically looking around whispering, "Harry? Harry, sweetie? Harry?"

Auror training kicked into gear.

"OK. Hold it. Basic questions, sir. Who are you? How did we get here? Where is our boy, Harry?" James asked, wrapping an arm around Lily.

"Ah, yes of course. I'm Steve Winkle. I run the Division for Time-Space Regulation. I think we bumped into each other in the hall once a decade ago, but, anyway, you've been frozen in another dimension, and, uh, well. Gee. We really should have put some thought into what to do with you once you were unfrozen. Ah, but, 11 years, time-space, frozen, He Who Must Not Be Named, yeah. We fixed it though. Harry Potter is fine, your son that is. Umm, I think maybe we should find someone better to fill you in…"

"Dumbledore, where is Dumbledore?" James asked, looking at the clearly deranged wizard. Space? Time? Say what?

"Ah, excellent suggestion, Dumbledore. I'm just going to, uh, go tell the minister of magic you've been unfrozen, and we'll get right to finding Dumbledore. Huh, I really wasn't sure it would work," Steve smiled, quickly striding through the crowd and out of the room.

Definitely, deranged.

******

"Kingsley!"

"Yeah, Evers?"

"The bloody idiots down in research and time-space regulation just unfroze the Potters."

"Eh? That's great. Are they OK?" Kingsley Shacklebolt stood up from his desk, concerned and interested. The Potters had been good friends, although the days of the Order seemed like another lifetime.

"Not sure. Nobody said they weren't fine, so I suppose they must be all right," Evers speculated. "But the real trouble is, well, no one thought it would work. The guys in research have been saying they're on the verge of successful PUFP for 11 years. Nobody took them seriously, so they went and woke them up, and the folks from internal affairs weren't even there. It's pandemonium, worse than the time Chase dropped that bag of pixie dust in the lift. Anyway, you used to work with James, so we need you down there."

Kingsley hesitated a moment before following Evers to the lift. This was odd and very sudden. Should they be in more of a hurry? The lift dinged open. It was packed, but they squeezed in. Everyone seemed to be going to the storage level. After a few more stops they all piled out and Kingsley noted that even Minister Cornelius Fudge had been in there.

"Ah, Kingsley, good man. We need as many familiar faces as we can get. Any idea where Dumbledore has gotten off to?" the minister asked.

"He's off on summer holiday somewhere, away from the castle last I heard from Lupin," Kingsley explained.

After Voldemort's disappearance and the crackdown on dark magic and creatures, the Order had managed to get Kingsley assigned as Remus' caseworker for his "furry little problem," as the Marauders used to call it.

Of course, Remus Lupin was a special case, but Kingsley still checked in regularly for a good cup of tea if nothing else.

They suddenly were at the end of the hall stuck behind a crowd.

"Move it folks, minister coming through," Evers hollered, clearing them a path.

There, in that room, stood James and Lily Potter _moving._ If that wasn't a sight to behold. Fudge walked ahead.

"Mr. and Mrs. Potter, umm, good to have you back with us. My apologies for not being here in person earlier. Anyway, I'm sure you have lots of questions," the minister began awkwardly.

James seemed a little confused still, but he looked the minister up and down.

"Hello, sir," James replied. "I'm sorry for all the trouble. This fellow was saying something about time travel? And where's Harry? Voldemort was just here a moment ago."

"Ah, Voldemort has been dead 11 years. It's not time travel. You've been sort of, well, frozen, if you will. Harry is fine. We have him well cared for by a blood relative to keep up that blood magic Dumbledore was so adamant about," Fudge explained, raising more questions than answers.

"No, you see, Voldemort was here a moment ago," James said as though talking to someone a bit slow.

"Hey, auror, err Kingsley, come over here. You look old," Fudge shoved Kingsley in front of the couple.

"Bloody hell, Kingsley, but this can't be right. What happened to your afro? And, dude, he's right. You _do_ look older. Is this a joke?" James asked.

"It could be a spell," Lily cut in, scrutinizing the crowd and picking out other familiar faces that just seemed _old. _"I can't believe it. James, could it be real?"

"Hey, listen, don't worry. We'll get Dumbledore to explain everything better," Kingsley said, and Fudge huffed. "Voldemort is dead. You guys seem fine. Harry is safe. And we've got Black off in Azkaban where he can never hurt a soul again."

"Wait, what? Sirius is in Azkaban? What happened?" Lily gasped, as James looked murderous at the thought of his best friend behind bars.

"He was your secret keeper. Naturally, we made sure the traitor got what he deserved," Fudge said with pride.

"WHAT!?! Sirius was NOT our secret keeper," James roared. "Wait, it's seriously been 11 years? You've had him in prison all this time? What the hell?"

Silence.

"Umm, h-h-he wasn't your secret keeper? But, Sirius Black is a confirmed madman and killer. He murdered a crowd of muggles and all that was left of Peter Pettigrew was a finger," Fudge stuttered.

"Didn't you give him a trial? What the heck kind of crappy future is this?" James asked. "Peter was our secret keeper you sod, err, I mean, sir."

"Peter?"

"Yeah, Peter."

"Oh…oh, this is bad. He still shouldn't have killed the muggles… Are you sure Pettigrew was the secret keeper?" Fudge tried again.

"He was there with Voldemort cowering like a rat," James said, the pain and drama of discovering his friend's betrayal was still fresh for him even though it technically happened 11 years ago.

"Ah, well, could they have been in league together?" Fudge asked.

"Did you even bother with veritaserum?" Lily asked.

"Good point. Good point. Let's go give that a try now, shall we," Fudge said, miffed that what should have been a wonderful day was turning out to be rather bothersome.

*******

Drip. Drip.

Sirius Black rocked back and forth clutching his knees to his chest. The dementor leaned against the bars for a moment longer. All Sirius could see was James Potter pointing at him and yelling "traitor" again and again. Sirius began to weep a little. It was his fault, all his fault. Why had he insisted on them having that no good rat as a secret keeper? His loathing for Peter had almost grown as much as his hatred for himself over these -- he turned to the wall counting the marks he'd etched – over these 11 years.

The dementor pulled away, moving on to torment someone else, but the bone-chilling cold stayed. It never really left anymore. Sirius barely had the heart left to growl a little at the dementor's retreating back, if dementors had backs. He didn't like dementors very much. He didn't like much of anything these days.

His senses slowly came back. It was cold and he could smell that it must be raining outside, although he hadn't seen rain or the outside in ages.

Drip. Drip.

Someone screamed down the hall, and it was almost welcome because at least it disturbed the silence. Sirius supposed he could talk to himself to provide some sound, but he didn't want to give the dementors the satisfaction of his going completely off the deep end, not that he was sure dementors could feel satisfaction. He didn't much like dementors. Oh, dear, his thoughts were going in circles again. That tended to happen when there'd been nothing new to ponder in your life for 11 years other than the occasional scream.

Drip. Drip.

Stupid water dripping down the stone.

Drip. Drip.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap tap tap.

Sirius jerked up. Were those footsteps? A new prisoner? There were never new prisoners down here. Everyone in this wing served for life, and if someone new was arriving, it meant someone else must have died to free up a cell.

Tap tap, tap, tap. "Yes, he's right down this way. Are you sure about this?"

Definitely a person, and one bold or cracked enough to speak to the dementors.

"Yes, yes. Let's just get this done with."

That was a second person. Two people. That was three whole voices in one day. The new prisoner, the second new voice and that scream earlier.

The crowd of footsteps drew closer, and Sirius stood up, straightening his shirt. Remus would have given him a lecture for looking like such a mess. Sirius's chest tightened at the thought of his former friend and he almost laughed at himself as he walked over to grip the bars.

The group was now in sight and he backed away somewhat nervous.

"There he is! OK, let the dementors go in first. Then Monroe will cast the tranquillizing spell, and Snell will use the veritaserum."

That was definitely not something a new prisoner would say, Sirius mused. But he backed further away as he felt the dementors approach, and then a spell knocked him back onto his rear and a wave of wooziness swept over him.

Someone was cupping his chin and forcing a warm liquid down his throat. Huh, it really was veritaserum. Why would they be giving him that? He tried to clear the fog from his mind. He looked up and would have sworn he saw James. That sent him into a round of embarrassing sobs.

"Err, OK, is he ready?"

"He should be."

"Fine then, are you Sirius Black?"

His mouth moved on its own, "Yes."

"Are you or have you ever been a Death Eater?"

"No, scum the lot of them."

"Were you Lily and James Potter's secret keeper?"

Here he started shaking.

"Hey, Sirius, it's all right man. Just answer. They're going to let you out."

That definitely sounded like James. Sirius looked up again. It really looked like James, too, and that looked like Lily. But it couldn't be them. They looked as though they hadn't aged a day. What kind of sick game was this?

"Were you Lily and James Potter's secret keeper?"

"No."

There was a flurry of whispers.

"Did you in any way betray the Potters to Voldemort?"

"Yes."

"Hey wait! It's not working. Something is wrong with your potion. He wouldn't. Sirius, tell them you wouldn't," the James-like figure shouted. Sirius' heart was breaking. Sodding dementors. This was worse than the usual nightmares. He was going to have to say what he had done right in front of James.

"Calm down Mr. Potter. Now then, Mr. Black, in what way did you betray the Potters?"

Sirius moaned and shook with a sob, "I t-t-told them to...I'm such an idiot. I told them to pick Peter. It's all my fault. I thought it was clever and that no one would ever think it was Peter. I played right into Voldemort's hand. Bloody traitor. Wish I'd killed the rat. Hah! A rat. Bloody obvious. Should have seen it coming. It's my fault. All my fault. All my fault. All my fault."

"Oh, Sirius," that sounded like Lily.

There was an inhale of breath from his interrogator.

"Sirius Black, did you intend any harm to the Potters when you suggested Mr. Pettigrew as a secret keeper?"

"No, oh God, no," Sirius whispered.

"Have you ever done anything else to harm them or to support Lord Voldemort?"

"No," he spat.

"Did you kill those muggles the day after the attack on the Potters?

"No," Sirius was growing tired and his brain grew fuzzier.

"Who killed them?"

"Peter."

"And then you killed Pettigrew?"

"No, I meant to. He turned into a rat and scampered off."

There was more whispering.

"Pettigrew is an animagi?"

"Yeah."

"Damn."

A few minutes later someone was helping him back to his feet. The visitors were leaving…and he was leaving with them? He was outside his cell?

"Sirius Black, you are a free man...and, err, you have our greatest apologies, obviously it was the logical thing for us to do at the time. Terrible the way it turned out, but, well, I'm sure you understand old chap," Fudge patted the semi-lucid man on the shoulder.

*******

After a hot shower, a medical exam and a potion to clear up his mind, Sirius was looking much better, which is to say he looked terrible, just no longer horrifically terrible.

Somehow Lily and James were here, which made no sense whatsoever, but he wasn't going to complain. Everyone kept saying that Dumbledore would explain everything.

James kept shooting him sympathetic looks and patting him on the shoulder. Lily had lent him a hair tie and had tried to remark that he looked much better with the scraggily hair out of his face. Black raised an eyebrow. Humph. Either he had finally snapped, the dementors had lost their edge or this was a freaking awesome day.

Sirius smiled, although he caught his reflection in a window and noted that the smile looked a tad creepy on that hollow face. How could Lily and James look exactly the same when he couldn't even recognize himself?

Kingsley smiled back at the Potters and Black, still marveling that they were here. It was a lovely, sunny day, and they'd come to see the one man who would know where Dumbledore might be at the moment. And they needed Dumbledore to sort out the whole business of two newly unfrozen, 21-year-old Potters and one newly proven innocent, 32-year-old Black.

So here they were on the brick path leading up to a cozy little cottage in a row of equally quaint houses.

Kingsley turned back to the door as he heard the sound of footsteps. A second later there was the jingle of locks being magicked open.

"Sorry, Kingsley, give me just a second," a muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

The auror froze. Oh, no.

Black raised and eyebrow at Kingsley's sudden horror.

"Sorry, sorry, I heard you calling, and I'm trying to get it open, but dad's just got too many darn locks on the door. Paranoid much?"

Oh no, no, no, no, no. The Potters had been unfrozen for less than 5 hours. Kingsley had found out 3 hours ago, and in his rush to find Dumbledore he had put them all into the most awkward situation possible. _Of course_, it was summer holidays, that was the whole reason why Dumbledore was away and why the werewolf should be here at home instead of Hogwarts.

Click. And the door opened.

"There we go. Dad's actually not home right now, but you can step in…Oh, wow, is that…are they…uh, Kingsley?"

The door had opened to reveal an 11 year-old boy with messy black hair and startling green eyes.

Kingsley finally found his tongue.

"Oh shit."

***************

PREVIEW FOR NEXT CHAPTER

11 YEARS AGO

Remus awoke facing a pale blue curtain.

"Hello, Remus," Dumbledore's voice came from the other direction and the werewolf flopped his head around to stare at the leader of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Whr mm eh.." Remus asked weakly.

"Ah, where are you? St. Mungo's, I'm afraid. You were in rather bad shape when we found you, but your message arrived just in time. A lot of lives were saved because of you," Dumbledore explained.

"Ss tru?" Remus tried again to speak.

"I'm sorry, Remus? What was that?" Dumbledore asked with a kind smile.

"Is," Remus took a deep shuddering breath. "Is it true? V-voldmrt…dead?.." Remus broke into coughs.

"Ah, yes, well, I'm not quite sure about dead, but he is gone, that is certain. And it seems that there will be a brighter future," Dumbledore offered.

Remus felt peaceful for once and smiled back. This was wonderful news. Maybe he wouldn't have to go back to the pack. He wonderer how much of the pack was even still alive after last night, at least, he thought it was last night.

"How long have I been out?" he asked, getting his voice back more and more.

"Three weeks. Gave Madam Pomfrey quite a scare. She came over to look after you personally. You always were her favorite student. I feel somewhat bad for the St. Mungo's nurses. Madam Pomfrey was quite the slave driver. I doubt a werewolf has ever been treated so well at St. Mungo's before," Dumbledore paused and frowned. "How much exactly had you heard about Voldemort's demise Remus?"

"Not much, Greyback was just furious," Remus said.

"Ah," the headmaster hesitated again. "What about the Potters?"

Remus shot up in bed. And then fell back into the mattress with a pained moan. He latched his hand onto Dumbledore's wrist. His eyes stared pleadingly up into Dumbledore's.

"What about them?"

"It seems Voldemort was trying to attack them when he was defeated. He has used some sort variation of a petrification spell on Lily and James," Dumbledore explained. "The ministry is attempting to unfreeze them. They actually just were moved out of the hospital on Tuesday."

Remus had no idea what day of the week it was, but it didn't matter.

"What about Harry? Why haven't you mentioned Harry?" Remus asked.

"Harry is quite fine, although that's a matter we need to discuss," the older wizard said.

"Is Sirius looking after him?" Remus paused. "Dear God, did Sirius… is he the traitor?"

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore sighed as Remus began to tremble. He was a strong young man, but the headmaster worried that he was burdening the werewolf with too much.

"I'm sorry to tell you that he killed Mr. Pettigrew before the authorities were able to catch him. He's in Azkaban now."

Remus' trembling stopped, "He wasn't under the Imperius curse?"

"I'm afraid not."

Remus sat quiet for a long while.

"Then who is looking after Harry?"

"That, Remus, is something you and I need to discuss."

******************

A/N: Like I said, Remus, Remus and more Remus next chapter.

Also, Remus is not a blood relative of James or Lily. So, why would Harry be able to live with him? This will be explained later in the story.

I hope you're enjoying this. Please read and review.


	3. Why werewolves make terrible spies

AN: This chapter begins to address what happened to Remus directly after the fall of Voldemort with a few flashbacks about what happened to Remus during the war. There will be more on both those topics in chapters to come. If you haven't figured it out yet, this story has a lot of flashbacks.

There's a lot of introducing OCs this time, but I hope you'll find them enjoyable OCs. A few of them come into play later. None of them really steal the spotlight, but hopefully they spice things up a bit.

There's also slight Remus/Sirius in this chapter. We're talking minor stuff like it being implied that they kissed, so it's very PG.

Ack, it's so long. It's 3 a.m. and I figure you'd rather read it and let me do a more thorough edit tomorrow.

Thanks to those who have reviewed. As promised, let the Remmy angst goodness begin:

*********

THE MORNING AFTER VOLDEMORT'S FAILED KILLING CURSE -- 1981

(We go back to Remus and another member of the pack, Seamus. After watching the pack slaughter the inhabitants of a small rural town, Remus apparated away from the carnage to catch his breath, pretending to have killed the town mayor. Reread Chapter 1 if you've forgotten.)

"Found him! And boy did he do a number on the mayor!" Seamus jogged ahead of Remus as they reached the pack's rendezvous point, a wooded hill above the town.

Greyback turned around to face the two, a genuine smile of pride lighting up his scarred face. He walked right past Seamus and gave his "eldest son" a hug.

"And to think there was a time when you thought you couldn't kill a human," Greyback laughed, slapping Remus on the back.

It was times like this when Remus hated Greyback the most. How could the heartless murder sound so much like a loving father when talking about eviscerating human bodies? It made Remus feel filthy.

That scared him too. Remus wasn't a hateful person by nature. He like tea and books and even pranks. But half of him wanted to jab his wand into Greyback and whisper a few choice and very illegal words.

Instead, he shrugged dispassionately:

"He didn't really put up much of a fight, I'm afraid. I'm surprised my wolf had the patience to play with him long enough to let the man flee that far," Remus spoke casually, gesturing to the field just west of the hill.

He hated speaking so callously about human life. He hated listening to the response, the cheerful laughter of the pack, men and women ripe with the smell of drying blood. He hated that it all felt so natural these days. He hated his dark, grim life. It was driving him mad.

Greyback patted Remus on the back once more, and guided him over to a group of wolves huddled over something curled up on the ground.

"Wait until you see this. We've got a double," Greyback crowed with pleasure.

There in the center of the commotion was a woman in a tattered and bloody robe, clutching something to her chest and rocking from the force of her sobs.

Remus felt his heart sink, as he tried to culture his voice to sound simply curious, "How old?"

"Don't know about the wench, but the cub is two and mine," Greyback replied.

It was a familiar situation, and Remus easily understood his meaning.

The woman was holding a two-year-old boy to her chest. Both had been bitten, and Greyback felt the tingling connection that meant he had been the one to bite the boy. Remus felt a slight tingling as well, something in the wolf's nature telling him this child was now family.

The discovery of pack connections had been a shock that Remus had struggled with since joining the group. It was especially troublesome because Remus felt the strongest connection with the man who had bitten him, Greyback, a man he hated unconditionally.

That tug in his chest that told him to obey and please Greyback always made him feel sick with himself. The first time it had happened, he had literally gotten sick, all over a woman's clearly expensive silver stilettos.

Greyback had thought it was hilarious.

TWENTY-ONE MONTHS EARLIER

_Remus Lupin was standing at the bar, glancing nervously around the shadow-laden room. He was shakily sipping on his third Sprite, not trusting himself anywhere near alcohol at the moment. _

_The door to the bustling pub banged open with the wind and two cloaked figures ambled in. Remus jolted, but reminded himself that this might not be the man he was here to see. The last 12 people entered in the same fashion and none of them had been the right person either._

_He was waiting for a werewolf called Seamus, who apparently was in the business of recruiting werewolves for Voldemort._

_Remus slowly turned to eye the two newest entrants. His eyes instantly locked onto a pair of dull grey irises, seemingly without his willing them to do so. His knees trembled, his head spun and he sunk to the floor, retching all over the feet of the stranger who had been standing next to him. _

_The hair on the back of his neck prickled as the man with the grey eyes laughed, but he felt oddly comforted when the same man came to stand next to him and place a hand on his shoulder. It felt familiar somehow._

_The bartender was yelling at Remus, and Remus shook his head trying to understand what was being said._

_Suddenly there was a growl and the pub went unearthly silent._

"_Oh, he's with you?" The bartender murmured to the man with grey eyes._

_There was another low rumbling snarl from the grey-eyed man as he turned and began walking to the door._

_The companion that the man had walked in with grabbed Remus around the waist and hoisted him over a shoulder._

_This was bad. This was not the plan. The plan was: Go to the bar, meet with the recruiter, strike up a conversation implying he'd like to join up with Voldemort's forces, get any information he could and then schedule a time to meet once more in hopes that they'd eventually invite him to join the pack. That had been Dumbledore's proposed strategy. The wolves were notoriously distrusting of outsiders, so he was to slowly earn their trust. _

_So why was he slung over this brute's shoulder like a sack? Where on earth were they taking him? Why did his head start spinning anew anytime he looked over at the grey-eyed man? Why couldn't he even move enough to protest being carried off like this? Had someone drugged him?_

_After a great deal of walking they met up with another man who handed them what must have been a port key. The feeling of being yanked by the port key did nothing to settle Remus' stomach. A while later he was conscious of someone setting him down. They appeared to be in a cave, and he could see dozens of shadows moving around deeper inside the cavern._

_There was a chuckle._

"_Are you sure it's him, Greyback? He's about as limp as noodle."_

_Greyback? And suddenly it struck Remus with horrifying clarity that the man with grey eyes was indeed the most notorious werewolf of all time. Had he been so transfixed by those eyes that he hadn't even noticed earlier?_

_Greyback smacked the first speaker, a tall, lean man with black hair, who appeared to be roughly the same age as Remus._

"_Of course that's him. It's just the bond has made him out of sorts. He is my first son, after all. _You, _wouldn't understand, Ly." Remus watched blearily as Greyback crouched in front of him with an eerily kind smile. "Don't worry, my boy. You'll be feeling much better once we get you initiated."_

_Over Greyback's shoulder he could see the black-haired man scowling._

_Then Remus was being lifted again, carried to another room and then set down in a chair at a small table._

"_Do you know who I am?" Greyback was sitting across from him._

"_Fenny Grehbah. Werewoo," Remus slurred._

"_Yes, we're all werewolves here, Remus. This is my pack, _your_ pack," Greyback explained, his crooked smile growing impossibly wide. Remus tensed at the realization that they knew his real name._

"_Explain it to him, Ly," Greyback said. "You're better at these annoying magic theory things and shit."_

_The dark werewolf frowned and looked away. _

"_Lionel Malfoy!" Greyback barked._

_Remus and the black-haired werewolf both jumped a little, but Ly gritted his teeth and walked over._

"_Do you know who bit you?" he sneered._

_Remus looked over to Greyback._

"_Yes, of all the sodding luck in the world, you just happened to be bitten by the most powerful werewolf in the world. And you're the first person that ever lived after he bit them. Do you know what that means?" Ly asked._

_Remus wearily shook his head, wishing that he was in Godric's Hollow sipping hot cider while chatting with Sirius, James and Peter about what to name James' soon-to-be-born child._

"_It means, you lucky son of a bitch, that you are the eldest son of Greyback himself, and the funny feeling that is driving your stomach crazy is your pack bond," Ly leaned against the table._

"_Normally, it's not a big deal," Ly drawled, "But those idiot humans that raised you kept you away from your real family for so long that you're not used to it. And since you were out there living with humans, you've never come of age like a proper werewolf, so your body isn't quite sure what to do with you now that you're suddenly surrounded by all these wolves."_

"_Huh, told you it was complicated. Don't quite get it myself," Greyback's toothy grin was really starting creep Remus out._

"_I'm b-b-bloody 19, 'course I'm of age," Remus was embarrassed that he still was struggling to speak._

"_Doesn't matter if you've graduated from that pretentious school of yours, and it doesn't matter how many birds you've shagged. You're not of age as a werewolf," Ly walked around the table, clearly enjoying this part. He set a hand on Remus' shoulder, and Remus tried to swat it away._

"_You see, Remus," Ly continued his explanation, unfazed. "The reason those wizards and witches hate us so much is because they fear our power. Ancient magic runs through the veins of a werewolf. We're an old species. We're connected to each other. The bond of a pack is a powerful magic and there are certain…rituals, things a lone werewolf would never know, things the pack has to do for you so that you can reach your full potential. _

"_But, of course, the power of the pack is in exchange for your loyalty. You understand we're your real family, don't you Remus? You've been with humans an awfully long time, but you can feel the bond can't you? Your wolf wants to be reunited with the pack."_

"_You've felt it missing, right? The absence of the pack? A cub is fine, but there comes a time when a mature werewolf needs to join his pack as a proper adult."_

_Greyback cut in, "So Remus, you need to join the pack."_

"_How do I do that?" Remus' heart was beating like crazy. He was terrified and he wanted out of here. But he couldn't very well say, "Gee, fascinating, mind showing me the way out?" After all, he _was_ supposed to be infiltrating the pack. Apparently it just wasn't going to be as hard as he and Dumbledore had suspected._

_None of this had ever been in the books he'd read on werewolves, and he'd read almost everything on the subject. Those books, however, had been written by wizards, hadn't they? He'd always thought of packs as brutish herds of men and women gone wild, but perhaps they had their own books or some sort of oral history? Remus could almost picture Sirius laughing at him. Here he is surrounded by a bunch of dark, murdering werewolves and he was pondering the anthropological significance of werewolf lore. _

_Greyback reached across the table and grabbed his hand._

"_You're my first son, so I won't make it easy on you. Show them what you've got," and with that Greyback stood up and walked out of the room, with several other wolves following. Ly stood there a moment longer._

"_So, first the right of passage. I recommend you kill him before he kills you," Ly whispered in his ear and forced a glass to Remus' lips. "And I'd drink this."_

_Remus choked down the liquid before he could think over how wise that was, and Ly took the empty glass and Remus' wand with him as he left and shut the door. _

_Remus realized there was still one werewolf left with him in the room. He felt a little steadier with Greyback gone. Remus looked up at the other werewolf and felt a twinge of recognition even though he was sure he'd never seen the werewolf before._

_But the eye contact was short lived because the other man suddenly jumped at him with a howl. Remus was knocked out his chair, struggling underneath the man as the other wolf reached to strangle him._

_Tapping into his werewolf strength, Remus grabbed the hands as they lunged for his neck. He wasn't sure how long he could hold the squirming arms at bay with this man sitting on his chest. _

_And then something shifted in his mind. It was his wolf. Every now and then the wolf inside Remus showed a little when it wasn't the full moon. James and Sirius called it PMSing when Remus would get irritated and growl a little, when, for example, they'd raided his private chocolate stash._

_But now the wolf was pushing forward to the front of his mind and it seemed to be passing right through his normal barriers of self-restraint with ease._

_There was a growl, and Remus realized it had come from his own throat._

_He suddenly yanked the other wolf's arms to the side, hearing a satisfying pop as the other man's right shoulder dislocated. _

_He flipped over, smashing the other man into the side of the table. He leapt on top of the burly young man punching him again and again. The man threw him off and Remus stumbled over a chair, but he quickly snatched up the chair and slammed it into the other man. Somewhere in the back of Remus' mind, he was wondering what on earth he was doing. But that was quickly quashed by the wolf's desire to rip his opponent limb from limb._

_Remus raised the chair and hit the man again and again. The young Hogwarts graduate grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck and threw him onto the table, where he began punching him._

_Then, the man on the table whimpered and Remus looked at his face and felt that familiar tug on his heart again. What on earth was he doing? Remus took a few steps backwards._

"_I'm sorry," he said, but the man had now drifted into unconsciousness. _

_Great, now what? Remus looked around the room, trying to find some way out of this situation. This wasn't him. Spy mission or not, this was madness. The way his wolf was still fighting for dominance scared Remus to no end._

_Finally, he heard a doorknob turn, and Remus jerked around to face the door._

_Greyback stepped back inside with a few other wolves following._

"_Sounded like it had quieted down," Greyback said with a smile, coming up to put an arm around him. Remus flinched. Greyback walked over to the other man and poked him. "Not dead, hmm?"_

"_No…I…" Remus trailed off, rubbing his chest where he still felt that tug. His blood was pounding in his head even louder and the wooziness was starting to return._

_Greyback saw his movement and nodded, "Ah, recognized your brother did you? He's my second eldest. Well, he's older than you in years, but I bit you first."_

_The head werewolf gestured to Ly, who was standing by the wall, "Ly is the third eldest. A year older than you by human reckoning, but that's just another year wasted in a life before becoming what we all are now. Time wasted, eh, Ly?"_

_Ly looked away. There seemed to be some hidden insult to Ly there, but Remus wasn't sure what it was._

"_But, anyway, you seem to have beaten Riki pretty soundly."_

"_D-d-din't mean too…"_

"_Oh, I figured you might have a little trouble channeling your wolf under a waning moon after living under the repression of humans for so long," Ly said, his cultured voice a contrast to Greyback's grating speech. "That potion should have helped loosen you up and bring out the real you for the test."_

_Remus did not consider his wolf the real him. There was no denying it was part of him, but he did not like things disrupting the equilibrium he had found with his beast years ago._

"_S-s-so that was it? I still f-feel..,"Remus was quickly loosing himself to the dizziness._

"_Oh, that all was just to earn the right to join the pack as a grown werewolf," Greyback leaned closer._

_Dang it. Remus' legs were wobbling again._

_And suddenly, Greyback lowered his head to Remus' shoulder and bit down, hard._

_Remus screamed. It hurt, it hurt like mad. The older werewolf had just bitten exactly where he had bitten Remus 15 years ago. The old wound burned and the burning spread through his blood as though his veins were on fire. He remembered the sensation vaguely from when he was four years old._

_The burn was fading, and suddenly he felt the compulsion to sit up, realizing at the same time that he had crumpled to the floor. _Sit up. _He'd felt it again, and slowly he sat up. He didn't feel so ill anymore, but at the same time he felt as though he could almost sense the connection with Greyback. In fact, he could sense the presence of every werewolf in the room. His breathing sped up. He was sensing all sorts of odd things, and it was overwhelming._

_He looked up into grey eyes._

"_You belong to the pack now, Remus," Greyback gave him a sunny smile. "I'm glad you're home, my boy."_

BACK TO 1981

Remus leaned against a tree. The new female werewolf was shrieking. First the screams had been for them to give her boy back, and now it was because she was being beating to a pulp. It always went this way.

It was extraordinarily difficult for a fresh werewolf to fully succeed in the right of passage.

Remus looked down to the child at his feet, and was grateful that only adults received this torture. This boy would at least have a fighting chance to become a member of the pack when he came of age.

Adult werewolves who failed the right of passage were called "Lessers," which was quite literally what they were treated as. They were slaves.

The pack leader would sink his teeth into a true adult werewolf for several minutes, allowing plenty of time for whatever magic was involved to seep into the other wolf. Lessers, those who failed the right of passage, only received a nip, sometimes barely breaking the skin, and it left them weak, never fully developed.

Remus had spoken with Ly at length on the process. The ritual was ancient, very ancient.

Apparently, there _were_ books on all of this. The tomes simply were kept far away from the hands of wizards. Most werewolves weren't allowed access to them either, although Ly had been forced to share the information since Remus was technically his superior. Oh, how Ly hated that.

Riki was an idiot and had never been a threat to Ly, but Remus was clever, a wand user and had been raised by humans.

Ly, who had been thrown out of the human world at the age of five, seemed to be infuriated that Remus had the audacity to be bitten first. (As if Remus could have done anything about it.)

Apparently, Lionel's father had insulted werewolves one too many times, and Greyback knocked him down a peg by biting his son. Greyback, of course, knew better than to bite the elder son, Lucius. That would have been going too far. The senior werewolf only barely escaped with his head because Voldemort had found it amusing. Even the Dark Lord occasionally got sick of the pretentious pure blooded family.

And like his family, Lionel Malfoy regularly drove Greyback nuts.

Ly was quite well-educated, though mostly self-taught, and Greyback constantly teased that Ly thought he was too good for his crude "father." Greyback, meanwhile, was infinitely proud of Remus, a wand user who chose to return to his roots on his own. He seemed to find Remus' human mannerisms endearing, after all, the boy couldn't help it.

Ly was trying to be sophisticated like a human. Remus already just was. And his magic and cleverness impressed the simpler Greyback.

The treatment of Remus caused even more bickering between Ly and Greyback, but even that was somewhat familial.

Ly, for his part, generally tried to please Greyback. He was precise and ruthless with his prey and always bowed to the will of the pack leader.

Not that he had much choice. Remus had learned the hard way that once you became a member of a pack, you were tightly bound to the leader through old blood magic. Absolute loyalty kept a pack strong, but it was problematic when you were a spy.

Remus laughed to himself. Igor Karkaroff always said werewolves made terrible spies. At one point it had been decided that werewolves would be great for undercover work because no one would recognize the social outcasts. But that proved useless, given that most were poorly educated and had a tendency to blow their cover in fits of violent rage.

For Remus, there was an entirely different problem. He'd gained a great deal of control over his bond. Being such a high-ranking werewolf gave him strength others didn't have, but he still couldn't outright betray Greyback, and Remus loathed that.

21 MONTHS EARLIER

_He stood in the hallway for a moment and then knocked on the apartment door. He had a key, it was his flat. But he figured he didn't want to startle Sirius, if he was home. Remus had been missing for a week, after all._

_There was some bustling behind the door and then it opened to reveal James. James blinked._

"_Mooney, oh thank goodness, Mooney! Guys, guys! He's back. Oh thank goodness, thank goodness, thank goodness."_

_James pulled Remus though the door and began pushing him toward the living room, but Peter and Sirius came barreling into the entryway before they got far._

_Sirius tackled Remus in a hug and Peter seemed to be weeping._

"_We thought something awful had happened," Peter cried._

_Without detaching himself, Sirius began steering Remus back in the direction of the living room. _

"_Hang on a sec, I'll go floo Lily, and Dumbledore will want to know," James raced away._

_Sirius noticed that Remus was shaking a little as he pulled him down onto the sofa._

"_Where the bloody hell have you been?" Sirius asked._

_Remus opened his mouth to explain, to tell the whole terrible story of his abduction and unknowing induction into the pack._

_But his lips didn't move, and he closed his mouth. It was an action that the Marauders would get to know well over the next several months._

"_Hey, it's okay, Remmy, take your time," Sirius began rubbing circles on his back. "Wormtail, get him some tea, would you?"_

_Peter scurried off to the kitchen._

_Remus tried to speak again. Yet, again a little voice in the back of his head told him not to say a word that would betray his pack or, above all else, his father. Remus shook his head. That bastard was not his father. But the compulsion was strong, and Remus had already discovered that even thinking traitorous thoughts caused him great pain. He suspected Greyback could sense any disloyalty as well. Stupid bond._

_Sirius was looking at Remus worriedly, and Remus realized he was still waiting for Remus to say something._

"_Didn't go as planned," Remus answered lamely._

"_Obviously," Sirius snorted._

_James came back into the room with Peter in tow. Remus took the offered tea._

"_So, are you okay?" James asked._

_Remus exhaled loudly._

"_Well, they weren't as hesitant about letting me join as we thought," Remus carefully thought over his words. "They took me right to their den, and I couldn't get away until now."_

_He wanted to give them as much information as possible. These were the people he actually thought of as his family, his pack._

"_Wait, what? I thought you were going to take this slowly?" James asked._

"_Yeah, well, that was the plan, but I guess they..uh…needed new recruits badly enough to let down their standards," darn it, he was lying to his friends._

"_That's great. So where are they at? Do you think you'll be able to see them again after the next full moon to figure out where they plan to attack next or are you already on top of that Mr. Super Spy. Lupin, Remus Lupin," Sirius was bouncing on the couch._

"_Dude, Padfoot, you have issues," James rolled his eyes._

"_It's from an awesome muggle movie, James. Bond, James Bond," Sirius stuck out his tongue._

"_Why did I ever let Lily lend you those tapes? And what is with the James bond James bond?" James poked Sirius in the ribs._

"_Sigh, must I explain everything. Not you, James. 007. His name is 'James Bond.' He's this awesome secret agent working for her majesty's secret service, and he…" Sirius trailed off as James gave him a look._

"_Uh, so… Remus?" Peter cut in._

_Remus was glad for the tangent. It had given him time to compose his thoughts, but he still didn't have a good answer._

"_I, well, I can't really say where the den is."_

"_Oh, did they blindfold you?" Sirius asked._

"_No, it's sort of complicated. I just can't."_

"_What do you mean you can't?"_

"_Sirius. Obviously they're not going to just trust random new members with all their secrets. I'm sure they've got it enchanted so that only a secret keeper can disclose the location, you twit. And don't ask Remus to confirm that because obviously the spell wouldn't let him," James seemed triumphant when Remus smiled at him gratefully. "So when do you think you'll be able to get back there?"_

"_Well, I was going to head out in about an hour. I told them I was going to practice, err, hunting," Remus said._

"_Wait, what?" Sirius asked._

"_I kind of have to live there."_

"_What, already!?! But you're my roommate. That's totally unfair. And besides, we have a week's worth of snogging to catch up on," Sirius shouted._

"_We so did not need to know that Sirius," James groaned._

"_I'm sorry," Remus whispered, starring at his hands._

"_Oh, hell, Remmy, no, I'm sorry. This sucks, but I guess it sucks for you more, huh? Sirius soothed, abashed._

_They chatted for another hour or so, and Remus told them to pass things on to Dumbledore. As the time came to leave, Peter was sobbing again. James was trying to pack him a trunk of robes despite protests that it would be out of place in the den, so instead James shoved some chocolate bars into Remus' pockets._

_Sirius stood there looking somewhat hurt, clearly not wanting to let the werewolf out of his sight. He was upset with what Dumbledore was asking his boyfriend to do, and he didn't like that there were things Remus couldn't tell him. He couldn't help but be a little frustrated with Remus. In a few months that frustration would turn to anger, as he felt he knew less and less about Remus._

_But that would come later. Right now Sirius was trying to see how red Remus' cheeks could flush._

_James sighed, "Oh, for heaven's sakes, Padfoot. Stop kissing him before I'm tempted to go runoff and live with the werewolves, too, just so that I don't have to watch any more of this."_

BACK TO 1981

Remus missed moments like that. Now the other Marauders wouldn't even talk to him, not that he could blame them.

He was sitting here watching a women get tortured in front of her own son.

"Father, I'm going to take the cub back to the den. All that playing with my food seems to have worn me out," Remus spoke up, lifting the child into his arms.

Greyback, ever doting on his favorite son, gave him a wave. Ly raised a suspicious eyebrow. Remus was going to have to do something about that. He couldn't shake the feeling that his third brother knew Remus wasn't all he pretended to be.

Remus sighed and apparated to his room in the den. He quickly shrugged on a robe, still uncomfortable with nakedness no matter how common it had become

He walked down the hall to where the young ones slept, although the passageways seemed unusually quiet on the way.

The children were generally allowed to run wild, so long as they didn't interfere with adult business. Once they reached the age of 12, they began rooming and hunting with the adults in preparation for their coming of age.

Remus found the cubs particularly upsetting. It was these conditions that had produced a man like Greyback. They were wild, uneducated little terrors, and it broke his heart to think how different their lives could be if someone just set them down at a school desk.

Greyback, who was illiterate himself, had given Remus permission to try to teach them how to read. Some of them ignored it, but Remus had a small following, particularly among some of the children who had been bitten at an older age and who still had some warm memories of home.

As Remus entered the sleeping quarters, the children in the room paused their rumpus and stood in respect. This was a very important werewolf, they knew. They'd all been told he'd be the pack leader one day.

Remus felt a twinge in his chest just before a hug attacked his legs.

Ah, this is what made living in this place bearable, moments like this.

"Good morning, Will."

"Morning, boss-man," the four-year-old replied.

Will had dubbed himself Remus' guardian. It was completely ridiculous, but Remus loved it. Right now his little body guard was covered with cuts and bruises from the moon. The pups could be rough with each other in their games. Remus magicked up some bandages, shooting them at a few other children who looked a little worse for the wear.

Will had been bitten by Greyback shortly after Remus had joined the pack. It was the first newly bitten child Remus encountered, and he was a particularly sweet kid to begin with.

Greyback had warned not to coddle him, explaining that he needed to get over his home sickness. But it was a lost cause. They were nearly inseparable, and Greyback allowed it because the kid was just too cute, too mischievous and too devoted to Greyback's eldest. Still, he gave the cub a good kick every now and then to remind him of his place. It was a good way to put Remus back in line, too, on the rare occasions when they argued.

But Greyback was off in some field creating a new Lesser, and so Will could get in as much hugging as he wanted.

"Who's that? Is it a new one," Will asked, peering up at the new cub.

"Yeah, you look after him, okay?"

Will nodded. He was also Remus' emissary in the nursery.

"Kevin was by earlier, asking if you were back yet," Will hesitated. "He looked kinda sad."

Remus was taken aback. Kevin Foster was one of his few fellow wand-bearers. He had graduated from Hogwarts a few years ahead of Remus and was bitten while working as an auror.

He didn't take being suddenly cast out from society well. He was by no means upper-class, but he was a bit obsessive compulsive and duty driven. He didn't like dirty caves and being thrust in with what he considered the bad guy's team.

Kevin, thus, was a natural ally. In fact, Remus had stumbled across Kevin trying to send information to the ministry, and from that point on they'd worked as a team. The two of them still struggled to come up with ways to get out warnings without tipping anyone off that they were betraying the pack.

They knew that 99 percent of the time their letters were hopelessly indecipherable. And it didn't help that Remus' friends didn't trust a word he said these days.

They'd send bizarre owls, like one he's sent as warning for an attack on the British Museum.

"Hope you're safe. I hear Harry nearly took his first steps the other day and now has enough messy hair to rival his father. I'm so scraped up after the last moon that I look like one of the mummies from that muggle museum Lily likes. Looks bad out here, but getting by. Cheers, Remus."

He'd had a raging headache by the time he was done writing it, and Greyback kept throwing him confused looks as though he sensed something for several days afterwards. Remus had had to sit for hours staring at the paper before he'd even been able to will his body to write that obtuse message. The letters were often hopeless, but the duo was determined.

So, it was worrisome that Kevin, an auror by training, was visibly upset about something enough that a child had noticed.

Remus could hardly focus on Will's grumblings about how someone had lost the only red crayon so that now they only had green and blue. He left a little quicker than he normally would have, and started searching for Kevin.

Remus found the lanky man, resting with his face in his hands near the entrance of the cave.

"Kevin?"

The man jerked up.

"Remus, oh, geeze, sorry. I didn't realize you'd be apparating back ahead of everyone, so I thought I'd wait out front. So, have you heard?" the man nervously ran his fingers through his wavy blond hair.

"Heard? What? Did one of the other packs get into trouble?"

"No, but they're going to get into trouble. Tonight is going to be all out war, Remus. The death eaters have all slunk off, but the wolves are rabid about the whole thing. The packs are saying they're going to take revenge. They think it's just a trick by the ministry and he's not really gone."

Kevin had a habit of doing this – rambling and referring to werewolves as though he wasn't one.

"Wait, what are we talking about here? What do they want revenge for?" Remus asked, after all, plenty of werewolves lost their temper at just about everything.

"You Know Who. They say he's dead," Kevin was breathless.

Remus paused his head reeling.

Perhaps it was the shock of the day's news, perhaps it was the agony inflicted on his mind when he attacked Greyback later that night, or perhaps it was how hard he hit his head during that fight, but this is where Remus' memory started to go fuzzy.

Later it would return to him in terrifying dreams, but he couldn't really remember any of it when he awoke three weeks later.

3 WEEKS LATER

Remus awoke facing a pale blue curtain.

"Hello, Remus," Dumbledore's voice came from the other direction and the werewolf flopped his head around to stare at the leader of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Whr mm eh.." Remus asked weakly.

"Ah, where are you? St. Mungo's, I'm afraid. You were in rather bad shape when we found you, but your message arrived just in time. A lot of lives were saved because of you," Dumbledore explained.

"Ss tru?" Remus tried again to speak.

"I'm sorry, Remus? What was that?" Dumbledore asked with a kind smile.

"Is," Remus took a deep shuddering breath. "Is it true? V-voldmort…dead?.." Remus broke into coughs.

"Ah, yes, well, I'm not quite sure about dead, but he is gone, that is certain. And it seems that there will be a brighter future," Dumbledore offered.

Remus felt peaceful for once and smiled back. This was wonderful news. Maybe he wouldn't have to go back to the pack. He wonderer how much of the pack was even still alive after last night, at least, he thought it was last night.

"How long have I been out?" he asked, getting his voice back more and more.

"Three weeks. Gave Madam Pomfrey quite a scare. She came over to look after you personally. You always were her favorite student. I feel somewhat bad for the St. Mungo's nurses. Madam Pomfrey was quite the slave driver. I doubt a werewolf has ever been treated so well at St. Mungo's before," Dumbledore paused and frowned. "How much exactly had you heard about Voldemort's demise Remus?"

"Not much, Greyback was just furious," Remus said.

"Ah," the headmaster hesitated again. "What about the Potters?"

Remus shot up in bed. And then fell back into the mattress with a pained moan. He latched his hand onto Dumbledore's wrist. His eyes stared pleadingly up into Dumbledore's.

"What about them?"

"It seems Voldemort was trying to attack them when he was defeated. He has used some sort variation of a petrification spell on Lily and James," Dumbledore explained. "The ministry is attempting to unfreeze them. They actually just were moved out of the hospital on Tuesday."

Remus had no idea what day of the week it was, but it didn't matter.

"What about Harry? Why haven't you mentioned Harry?" Remus asked.

"Harry is quite fine, although that's a matter we need to discuss," the older wizard said.

"Is Sirius looking after him?" Remus paused. "Dear God, did Sirius… is he the traitor?"

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore sighed as Remus began to tremble. He was a strong young man, but the headmaster worried that he was burdening the werewolf with too much.

"I'm sorry to tell you that he killed Mr. Pettigrew before the authorities were able to catch him. He's in Azkaban now."

Remus' trembling stopped, "He wasn't under the Imperius curse?"

"I'm afraid not."

Remus sat quiet for a long while.

"Then who is looking after Harry?"

"That, Remus, is something you and I need to discuss."

**********PREVIEW FOR NEXT CHAPTER*********

Harry Potter was pretty freaked out at the moment.

Kingsley. Parents. Dad's former boyfriend gone psychopathic murderer.

Although he was curious about the second part of that, the third seemed most pressing.

Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at the convict, glancing over at Kingsley trying to figure out what he wasn't doing anything. They just needed to stall long enough for his dad to get here so that he could sneak up and get Black from behind. Surely, Black's presence in the yard had set off every alarm ward his father had ever cast.

"Hey, Harry, uh, sorry about all this…Oh, geeze, don't point that there, Black is innocent," Kingsley slowly approached the teenager and pushed down his wand arm.

"Innocent?"

"Peter was our secret keeper," his mom explained.

"Kingsley? What the heck?" Harry gasped, eyes darting around in growing

panic.

"It's okay, Harry, really," Kingsley said. "The ministry just unfroze the Potters, err you parents, I mean, your birth parents…? Anyway, they said Black wasn't the secret keeper and it all checked out, and so the ministry set him free, and we're looking for your dad so that we can ask where Dumbledore is so that we can make sense out of this whole business."

"Wait what do you mean we're looking for his dad? I'm right here," James said.

Harry blinked.

Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps running inside the house, apparently attracted by all the shouting.

"Dear God, Harry, it's Sirius Black! Get back inside!" a new voice shouted from the doorway. A boy slightly taller than Harry and startlingly similar in appearance grabbed Harry's shoulder.

"Wait, Will!"

Several things happened at once: The second boy in the doorway shot a rather violent curse, Harry tackled said boy, and Remus Lupin dropped his grocery bags standing at the gate to his yard.

"Don't kill Black! He's innocent!" Kingsley shouted at the top of his lungs. A neighbor mowing the grass down the street shot them an odd look.

* * *

AN: What happened during that gap in Remus' memory? Well, you'll just have to wait to find out because the explanation is still two chapters away. The next chapter deals with how Remus wound up looking after two kids. And yes, it will explain why Will looks so similar to Harry, and no they two boys are not blood related. You think James would go cheating on his dearest Lily?

Please read and review. It might motivate me to get the next chapter up sometime this year.


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